ConnecticutBob.Com is a modest blog on the internet since 2006. Progressive ideas are encouraged, and all politically-minded and reasonable people are welcome. America is the greatest country in the world, but we'll invade you if you disagree.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Where Are the Pastors?

I just love Ed Schultz. He is taking no prisoners on health care. I listen to him on XM or live stream (the Chicago affiliate has a very reliable stream, 12-3 Eastern). On Thursday's show, he started off by asking where Rick Warren, Franklin Graham, Pat Robertson, and James Dobson are on health care. Isn't it the Christian thing to want to take care of those less fortunate?

There is one religious man who is stepping up -- Jim Wallis of Sojourners. This is his latest message sums it up nicely -- it's about justice and fairness and the Golden Rule ('member that?):

As a nation, we are engaged in making decisions about our health care that will impact our families and communities for generations to come.

And I must personally share with you that I’ve had enough of the misinformation and, frankly, misleading statements coming from those who oppose the transformation of a health system that currently renders the best health care to the wealthiest, depletes the savings of solidly middle-class Americans, and leaves 46 million people with no health-care coverage at all.

We don’t have to fall victim to the naysayers – those seeking to prop up the status quo and sustain the profits of the massive insurance corporations.

Business as usual is not what we’re about. It’s not what change is about. It’s certainly not what people of good will from all faiths, who embrace the Golden Rule and seek the common ground of justice and fairness, are about.

During the last big national debate on health-care reform in the early 1990s, the religious community mostly stayed out of the discussion. Not this time.

A friend of mine recently traveled across several states in the U.S. visiting friends on summer vacation. He told me that, everywhere he went, people asked him to read e-mails they’d received. These e-mails had no author and no citations to support the misleading statements about health-care reform they contained – including the false claim that, if health-care reform passed, it would force families to see doctors and receive care dictated by a government panel. This is not true.

At a recent meeting of leading faith groups in Washington, D.C., a leader of a large, national organization said they were receiving calls asking if the elderly would be simply left to die if health-care reform passed. The answer is NO.

These egregious and false accusations are being created for only one purpose: to manipulate and instill fear in American citizens.

This must stop. We are the ones who can stop it.

Together, speaking out, acting out, and joining as one on a mission, we can push back the clouds of misinformation and fear-mongering, and allow the light of truth shine through.

Today, right now, let’s join together making the health-care debate factual, worthy of our families and communities. Let’s put the special interests on notice that we want real health-care reform, not misinformation and fear-mongering.

USE the messages and talking points that Sojourners has created in your discussions with others.

CALL your Members of Congress today, toll-free, at #1-866-279-5474 and ask them to vote for health-care reform.

We must act.

We must speak out in our communities, schools, and workplaces. If we all take part, then our voices will join thousands of others across the nation. Other things you can do include writing a letter to the editor of your local newspaper supporting health-care reform.

I pledge to you that I will do my part by keeping you updated on what’s happening here in Washington, D.C. Be prepared to receive action requests and notifications of conference calls that you should join.

Together, imagine the thousands of faithful voices speaking out, in unison – with all joining in.

Together, we can bring about the most sweeping change to our health-care system in history.

Together, passing health-care reform for our families is what people of good will from all faiths, who embrace the Golden Rule and seek the common ground of justice and fairness, can do. Join me.

7 comments:

Anonymous
said...

First an apology, Bob. I haven't been reading, never mind commenting on your blog for a long time. This old clunker I call a computer was having a hard time digesting all that fancy video work you were doing so I just went somewhere easier. For some reason I'm reading you loud and clear this time around and yup, right away you get me all dandered up. The last Catholic Transcript I got the headlines were. OBAMA'S HEALTHCARE BILL WILL PAY FOR ABORTIONS. (Or something like that.) I was born, Baptised and raised a Catholic so the only comment I will say is. Yea, Right. I'm shaking my head too. I'm eighty and I would like to say to all my fellow Grannys and Gramps. Go ahead and believe all that euthanasia crap. Let your Grandkids teeth rot in hell. What the hell. You got yours. J.C. Sr.

9/11 truthers, birthers and anti healthcare reform loons. What beside sheer paranoia do they share in common? You can provide them with irrefutable facts about their particular jihad and they will still stick to their various forms of insanity. There is just no point in even trying to convince them that their fears and beliefs are wrong. Leave them on the side of the road ignore them and move on to pass a measure that will actually help them as time passes by. I am all in favor of grassroots activism regardless of the politics involved, but damn, at least learn the facts before acting like fools.

I've heard that same spiel before, minus the florid imagery about jihads and roadsides... Nice job embroidering the latest ad-hominum attack script, you gave it your personal touch!

Now, while I'm not worried about our latest President's legitimacy nor am I in any way attempting to prevent healthcare $$$ coverage reform, when it comes to helping America learn the real facts around the "new Pearl Harbor", I am extremely well prepared. So let's debate, bring it on. Sorry to break the news to ya, but it's gonna take a lot more than jumping up and down waving a copy of Popular Mechanics and calling me nuts. You can begin by attempting to answer some of these questions:

http://911truth.org/article.php?story=20041221155307646

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility. I welcome it. — John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address Jan. 20, 1961

Lakezorian: Sorry but any questions or actually halftruths, outright lies etc. poisted by the 9/11 truthers have been more than well addressed by many more than just popular mechanics (which actually has a quite good rebuttal of the truther nonsense). Debate yourself because as I posted earlier fanatics who adhear to lies will never accept truth no mattrer how airtight.

Nopartisan, did you visit the link? Or are you such a dogmatic thinker that you are unable to consider the facts rationally? Between the grammatical errors and the misspelled words, of which there are three, your comment is not very convincing to the other readers of CtBob's excellent blog.